Projects

Open Data Monopoly

Open Data Monopoly is an application that lets users create custom Monopoly boards based on their own sets of values. The shape of the Monopoly board together with the rules of the game induce an ordering of the streets from “bad” to “good” (cheap to expensive) and imposes a certain ideology on the city which the board is based on. Open Data Monopoly gives users a chance to explore datasets through deciding what criteria should be used to select and order streets. What makes an area prosperous – high income, low child mortality, high level of education, diverse ethnicities, lively cultural life?

In its current form, the application is implemented in Java and uses open data from a number of sources, including the UK Open Data Initiative, the UK ordnance survey and DBPedia. The streets are formed from UK cities, towns and districs, and the Chance and Community Chest cards are created based on local political entities.

A paper describing the project and the most recent version of the software in more detail will be presented at the Computational Intelligence and Games conference, and can be read here.

A recent version of the software can be downloaded here.

Bar Chart Ball

BarChartBall example

Bar Chart Ball is a game where players indirectly
control a ball by modifying a bar chart that the ball rests on.
The bar chart displays real-world demographic data about
the UK, and the player modifies the chart by selecting which
aspect of the data to focus on. By making data selection a
core game mechanic, in fact the only game mechanic, we
advance a novel and simple way of building game content
from data, and of making data visualisation playable.